12 Things You Should Know Before Buying A Slow Cooker

Mom's generation may have popularized slow cookers, but they certainly haven't gone out of style. Here's everything you need to know before buying the kitchen appliance that could very well change your life forever. Well, change dinnertime forever, at least.

1. You can thank Irving Naxon for developing the hands-off cooking method.

The slow cooker was just one of more than 200 patented products Naxon applied for, and it was inspired by his Lithuanian mother. She grew up making a stew called cholent, which took hours to cook in the residual heat of the oven since it had to be turned off to observe the Sabbath. He received his patent for the appliance — a crock surrounded by a heating unit — in 1940.

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2. The Crock-Pot used to be called Naxon Beanery.

It was named after the inventor and the food for which he invented the appliance: beans. But when a rival company, aptly called Rival Company, acquired it, they rebranded the slow cooker as Crock-Pot in the 1970s.

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3. It was super trendy in the '70s.

During that decade, another 40 or so companies put slow cookers on store shelves. They were marketed to working mothers who were no longer keen to watch a pot all day. Crock-Pot even had the slogan, "Cooks all day while the cook's away."

4. They're still really popular.

According to Euromonitor, a consumer research company, slow cooker sales have almost doubled in the states since the start of the century. Globally, the market was more than $1 billion in 2014.

5. Crock-Pot = slow cooker, but slow cooker ≠ Crock-Pot.

Crock-Pot is just the name of one brand, but since it's one of the most popular on the market, home cooks tend to use the term colloquially. Think, saying Kleenex instead of tissue and Band-Aid for bandage.

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6. Slow cookers come in many sizes.

They may be a go-to for feeding hungry families, but slow cookers can churn out small meals for one person, too. You can get a one-and-a-half or two-quart crock, but most major brands make up to eight-quart sizes.

7. You can travel with your slow cooker.

While many Airbnbs come with well-stocked kitchens, most lack anything above the basics. Here's the thing: A slow cooker is perhaps the best vacation appliance ever, since you can go hard all day and come home to a (cheap) home-cooked meal at night. If it's important to you that your slow cooker can go places with you, look for one with clips that lock the lid in place. This comes in handy when bringing your world-famous pot of chili to a cookout, too.

8. This hack lets you make two things in a slow cooker at once.

Craft a foil wall in the middle of the pot, then place a liner over the whole thing. Bada-bing, bada-boom: You've got two pots in one.

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9. Look for one with a browning feature.

A lot of beef recipes call for you to brown the meat before throwing it in your slow cooker. This prevents the raw stuff from clumping together and adding excess grease to the mix of ingredients. But dirtying an extra dish to execute this step sort of goes against the slow cooker's one-and-done shtick. Slow cookers with a browning feature allow you to remove the cooking pot and place it directly on the stovetop to brown, then put it back in the slow cooker to finish cooking.

10. Slow cookers can be left alone for a really long time.

Many modern pots come with timers, so if your recipe has a cook time of six hours but you're at work for eight, you can program the slow cooker to turn to a warming setting until you get home.

11. You can cook almost anything in a slow cooker.

12. Some genius invented slow cooker liners so you don't have to clean the pot.

All you have to do is secure them around your slow cooker's inner pot before cooking, then continue as usual. When you're done, just remove the liner and throw it out. (And you can hack them to cook two dishes at once — bonus!)